Excerpt from Demon Born - part 1

Some of you have been asking about the 5th book in the Demonverse series, Demon Born. I thought I would post part of the first chapter for you here. It will have to be in 2 parts. This is part 1. (Forgive any errors. My editor, Katie Sampson has not seen this yet either. )

CHAPTER ONE

You’d have thought with the Dark Prince of Hell mind-wiped, if not dead, that the world would have been cleansed of Lucifer’s evil, that his machinations would have been erased along with him. Unfortunately, it hadn’t worked out that way. Like radioactive fallout, his toxic plans had taken hold in the susceptible and the desperate, in spite of his absence, contaminating the human world he had once hoped to dominate. Some of his victims were more desperate than others.

I sat back in my folding chair, under the umbrella-covered table where Lilly and I had set up a free vegetable stand in Beau’s front yard, both of us watching the news on my cell phone while waiting for more customers. The news anchor looked haggard and harried.

“L1 virus deaths worldwide crossed the two billion mark today, with the majority of those deaths occurring in hard hit third world countries. Governments with limited access to L1 vaccines are applying to become vassal states to those countries who have a larger supply, trading their independence and natural resources for a chance at life. The growing lack of manpower and accompanied supply chain disruptions are contributing to the food, fuel and medical crises across the globe. Humanitarian efforts are being coordinated by The United Nations and the ICRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross, but it may come too late for multiple countries in Africa, and areas in India, whose starving inhabitants are also coping with life threatening drought conditions. In another worrying development, North Korea tested a second Satan 2 missile today, sending a clear message that the DPRK stands with Russia should NATO forces intervene in the affairs of their allied nation states. In local news, Dallas police were called to a Walmart food distribution center after a mob of hungry rioters broke through barriers and ransacked the store, making away with its government allotment of food and other consumable commodities for the week. Dallas Chief of Police Ted Brown confirms that his department is investigating, but the numerous looters have not been apprehended.”

I looked over our picnic table of produce, most of it grown in Beau’s back yard garden, wishing we had more. We’d cultivated every scrap of ground between the pool house and the Garden, but the growing season had just started in Texas, and what we had was a drop in the bucket in comparison to the need. Sure, there were fewer people to eat the food, hundreds of thousands fewer each day, but there were fewer people to plant and harvest the food too, or process and transport it to where it needed to go. The angels would make sure we had enough to eat. There was an upside to having the Garden of Eden in the back yard. Dolores, who had recently moved into the compound, might be able to trade Mexican concha bread for apples, but the rest of humanity weren’t so lucky. They were hungry, thirsty, sick and desperate, and becoming more so with each passing day.

I looked away from the news broadcast as Lilly shifted her weight in the lawn chair. Finding a comfortable position was apparently challenging when you were eight months pregnant. I was barely three months along, my three-in-one baby bump barely noticeable, but I took notes. “You okay?” I asked her.

She winced and shifted her position again. “I’m fine. It just feels like Bella is digging her elbows under my ribs. She keeps poking me. I’ve told her there’s more room out here than there is in there.”

“You’ve decided to keep the Gardener’s name for her?” I smiled as I stood to help an elderly lady who’d stopped at our stand, filling the basket on her walker with an assortment of cherry tomatoes, basil, green onions and bell peppers.

“Who am I to argue with God?” Lilly rolled her dark eyes at me, and began pulling more vegetables from a big box under the table. “Besides, Daniel likes the name.”

“Where is Daniel anyway?” I looked around curiously, realizing I hadn’t seen the former Fallen angel who usually hovered like a black-winged shadow any time his wife left the house.

“He said he had to escort the Demon Lord to the Garden for an emergency meeting with the Host. I think it’s ridiculous they don’t let Max come and go on his own like they used to. It’s not his fault he’s stuck in Hell. He’s the same angel he was before.”

I looked away before she saw my hidden inner concerns about that. I hadn’t seen Max much since he had taken command of Purgatory, the part of Hell that he and his allies now completely controlled. The command duties of that new position seemed never ending, even without the rest of Hell, which as far as I could tell, no one controlled yet. But the few times I had seen him, he’d seemed…different from the angel I had married a little over two months ago. Not that I hadn’t changed too; living in Hell, even for a short time, did that to a person. Living apart didn’t make things any easier either. Still…

My internal uneasiness found another outlet as Lilly straightened, clutching her stomach with a curse. “You are not okay.” I diagnosed the what, if not the why, as she breathed through discomfort.

“It’s just a cramp.” She denied any other possibility. “Raphael says it’s normal and that my body is just practicing.”

Far be it from me to argue with the angelic healer, but… “Okay, but maybe you should go inside and rest for a while.” I advised. “I’m fine here on my own.” Like food, electricity was being strictly rationed now, and it was hot inside the house, our air conditioning being sacrificed to keep the lights on, the freezer cold and our cell phones charged. But it had to be more comfortable there under a fan than out here on a lawn chair.

“Maxiel told Daniel he didn’t want any of us outside the compound alone, that it wasn’t safe.” Lilly replied stubbornly, wiping sweat from her upper lip as she sank back down into the lawn chair again.

I looked askance at my oldest daughter whose adoption, along with all nine of her foster siblings, had come through a week ago. It gave me official permission to lecture all of them. “Lilly, I have a Fire breathing dragon living in my arm. And while Fire might not work on humans…” With the exception of Lucifer’s Dark tool, J.W. Ratman, I mentally amended. Balefire had worked frighteningly well on the rat man. “Dragon’s teeth are effective on everything.”